v. [ad. Gr. ἀνταγωνίζ-εσθαι to struggle against, vie with, rival; f. ἀντί against + ἀγωνίζ-εσθαι to struggle, f. ἀγών a contest: see AGON.]
† 1. trans. To compete with, vie with, rival. Obs.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 211. The Dodo which for shape and rarenesse may antigonize the Phœnix of Arabia.
2. To act in antagonism to, struggle against, contend with, oppose actively.
1742. Bailey, Antagonize, to act the Part of an Opponent in arguing, to oppose, to contradict.
1773. in Johnson.
1818. in Todd [only from Bailey].
1818. Keats, Endym. (1851), 81. Like one huge Python Antagonising Boreas.
1865. Masson, Rec. Brit. Philos., 48. A so-called Scottish Philosophy of Common Sense to antagonize all this mass of English and imported Sensationalism.
b. In England, antagonizing forces must be of the same kind, but in the political phraseology of U.S. a person may antagonize (i.e., oppose) a measure.
1882. Boston Evg. Transcr., 4 Feb., 4/3. Ex-Secretary Windom did not hesitate openly to antagonize ex-Secretary Sherman’s bill. Ibid., 8/5. The Democrats on the committee have given notice of a determination to antagonize this and all other bills for the admission of Territories as States.
3. Phys. To counteract the action of (the opposite muscle).
1840. Penny Cycl., XVI. 65/1. These fibres … have a constant tendency to antagonize the adductor muscle.
1860. Lewes, Phys. Com. Life, II. x. 280. The body is balanced by an incessant shifting of the muscles, one group antagonising the other.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 56. The ligament divaricates, when not antagonized by the adductor muscles.
4. Hence: To counteract or neutralize the action of (any force).
1833. Sir J. Herschel, Astr., viii. 285. Perpetual contest between conservative and destructive powers … so antagonizing one another as to prevent the latter from ever acquiring an uncontrollable ascendancy.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life (1861), i. 17. If Fate follows and limits power, power attends and antagonizes Fate.
1861. Ramadge, Cur. Consumpt. (1867), 49. The tumefaction of latent catarrh, if of any considerable duration, is sufficient to antagonize consumption.
5. intr. To act in antagonism.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. VI. i. 318. These organs … act from above downwards, but without antagonizing.
6. trans. To render antagonistic, make an antagonist.
1882. Echo, 20 Feb., 2/4. The very doing of this work … antagonises certain sections of the people whose interests are supposed to be prejudiced by legislative changes.
